Now that there's some time away from the mania this weekend, been reflecting on what's been going on with WSB/GME stock and while I don't know very much about investment or finance, this whole situation is giving me shivers down my spine and some serious deja vu.

My prediction is that GME will hover around $350 for a week... without ever truly "squeezing," and there's going to be a ton of redditors who absolutely, positively will lose all their savings by holding too late for the big squeeze that will never come...

Here's my thoughts; skip to the ending bullet points if you simply want the objective facts that support this thesis.

First, let me start with a bit of background. I'm not ashamed to admit I worked as a volunteer staff on the Bernie campaign (Event Coordinator; training field organizers and connecting them up with national staff). It genuinely seemed like Democratic Socialism was a viable possibility. We didn't need revolutionary change - we had the people on our side and could just win through sheer appeal!

Of course, the people never came. And the opposition within the Democratic party was stronger than any of us imagined. You all know the story... party insiders burning Iowa to the ground, circling the wagons on Super Tuesday to force all the front runners out before votes were cast, ridiculous Biden media fanboyism... etc. etc.

The irrational exuberance that small investors/the little guy is winning right now is misplaced. This is far from a sure thing. Very few individuals have actually come out ahead and there's good reason to think this all might head south quickly.

But it's not just a feeling, heres some objective facts that worth thinking about:

  • 65% of GME stock is held by institutional investors, 15% insiders... so it follows that it's only the 20% of retail trader stock causing this volitility.
  • With such large institutional advantage in squeezing this stock, it stands to reason that this squeeze only potentially occured because there's probably some internal financial squabble going on... that coincidentally coincided with the retail investor squeeze.
  • The retail trader squeeze must not be allowed to succeed by capital. If it turns into a "money machine" for typical investors it will be replicated.
  • Maybe the point of the crazy actions during week by brokers (like limiting stock purchases, cancelling orders, etc.) was just to buy some breathing room for this weekend. I predict a new strategy this upcoming week.
  • When the ruling class is losing, they can change the rules. Big assumption with the squeeze is that they are under the same time constraints for shorting as usual investors. What's to say their broker just can't keep defering short buybacks until the price gets hammered back down to "acceptible" levels?

Just a thought.

    • keter_propotkin [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Friday which was supposed to be the big day

      the person holding the shorts can just extend and extend and extend from calling. "Oh you're fucked if i call right now? well i don't want to deal with bankruptcy i'm not calling in the shorts yet." they know if they call them in right now they won't get paid

    • congressbaseballfan [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Good analogy. Getting carried out of an airport while kicking and screaming and arrested is the analogy for the ultimate price collapse that will happen: it’s just a matter of when.

      Like, what if GME gets removed from an index by the companies who control that? Lmao

  • keter_propotkin [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    What’s to say their broker just can’t keep defering short buybacks until the price gets hammered back down to “acceptible” levels?

    this is exactly what's going on. there's a long line of institutions (Melvin > Citadel > Insuring Agency [unknown]) that are making deals to spread the loss amongst them to prevent them all from failing a la co-party collapse.

    even the institutions on the other side of the bet with Melvin/Citadel are making deals with them to help get them out of this + avoid dealing with bankruptcy.

    • fusion513 [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      Yeah, what's to stop Vanguard/Fidelity from pulling out on Monday? It's not irrational to think the "price has peaked" and they could justify it as fedicuiary responsibility for an overpriced stock.

      Then the price craters. Ruling class solidarity and all that.

  • markersmarx [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    The stock is still around shorted around 111% last I checked. That means that somebody is holding the bag for those short contracts. Again, Melvin said they closing out their position, but there is not proof of this occurring. I don't think this will happen again for a while because of all the moving parts that had to align to cause this mania. And yes, the house always wins.